What's a Metronome

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What on earth is a Metronome and why do you need one?

Annie Clayton

A metronome is a piece of equipment that ticks at a selected rate to mark musical time.

Paws n Music has four very different ways of moving to music with a dog and each one has its own specific difficulties for the handler/dog team to get to grips with. That’s what makes the sport so interesting – the variety of learning for both team members.

Division B – Heelwork to Music. Almost ‘traditional’ heelwork with some Freestyle moves.

Division C – Freestyle. The opportunity to tell a story, illustrating it with any move you and your dog can come up with that is safe physically and respects the dignity of your dog.

Division D – Dances with Dogs. This is a great opportunity for the handler to show that we humans are as clever, elegant and naturally rhythmical as our dogs, by dancing with them. Not only using our feet but swaying our bodies and showing flowing arm movements too.

And then there is:

Division A – Musical Dressage. This one is just for your dog to demonstrate exactly how beautifully graceful and wonderfully rhythmical a dog can be. Whereby if the handler chooses the music that accurately reflects the dog’s natural trotting speed, every dog can move completely in time with the music. Those who have seen it know it can be breathtaking!

Before we go any further lets get one fact out of the way. In a sport entitled Heelwork to Music, music is extremely important. To do the sport you need a dog and you need music, therefore music has to be 50% of the requirements for the sport. Without music there is no sport!

Let’s concentrate on Division A, which entails working your dog in time with the music; and this is mandatory, compulsory, necessary, essential – it doesn’t matter which word you use, in Division A - Musical Dressage, you gotta do it!

If you are going to enter this class, whether with a competition routine or as a Progress Award, your dog must be working in time with the music and as most of the routine for most dogs is moving forward, then it is by measuring the speed of the dog’s forward movement that we can gauge the speed of the music.

But How? Get yourself a Metronome!

There is the standard tabletop version of a metronome that has been around for ages, shaped like a pyramid and powered by a clockwork mechanism. It has a pendulum attached at the bottom of the pyramid that swings from side to side making a loud ticking sound every time it moves. On the flat face of the pyramid there is a numbered chart going from 40 at the top of the chart (this is very slow) to 208 at the bottom of the chart (which is pretty fast).

Sliding a small weight up or down the pendulum alters the moving speed of the pendulum. The nearer you slide the weight to the top of the pendulum and the lower numbers, the slower the speed as the pendulum swings from side to side. The nearer the weight is to the bottom of the pendulum and the higher numbers, the faster the speed of the pendulum.

The chart is calibrated to be the exact number of beats per minute (or tick sounds paired with pendulum swings) at whichever speed you choose when sliding the weight to a corresponding number. So, if the weight on your pendulum is set at 120 against the chart, then the ticking sounds as the pendulum swings will happen 120 times a minute, therefore the speed of the metronome is set at 120 beats per minute or bpm for short.

There are many smaller, more easily portable versions of the metronome powered by batteries that have electronic ticks and LED numbers and pendulum. These are the digital metronomes which have buttons to alter the functions of the metronome. These will give you an accented beat on the first beat of the bar in several different time signatures – just tap a button to give 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 etc. – and most of them have a mute function as well, which is useful. Tap another of the buttons to increase the speed of the tick (or raise the number) and another button to slow the speed (or lower the number). The number on view at any time is the bpm you have chosen.

All very interesting but what about the dogs and music?

Let’s tackle finding the speed of the dog’s forward movement first; the forward movement we see most of is, the trot. The speed of the trot will depend on the breed of dog and on whether the trot is a head up, legs lifted trot or a trot with a straight top line and paws kept nearer the ground – the first would take more time to perform because if the higher leg action and therefore have a slower speed than the latter. As a very, very rough guide, a BC with a head up trot will move at a speed of about 180 bpm but if a BC does a straight top line trot, then the speed of footfall increases and so will the bpm.

A Retriever and a GSD will trot at approximately the same speed for both types of trot as a BC while a Newfoundland will be a deal slower but a JR or a German Spitz will probably be over 200 bpm whether head up or straight top line trot. As I said, this is a very rough guide but it helps with whereabouts on the metronome you start.

So, set your metronome to what you think is near the trotting speed of your dog. Get your dog trotting by your side and watch the front footfall. You want each front foot to land exactly with the beat shown by the pendulum or the tick sound on your metronome. As you continue heeling your dog, move the number either up or down until you get an exact match. You want every front footstep matching every beat on your metronome. When you’re pretty sure you’ve found the right speed but its still not quite with your dog’s feet, switch the metronome off and switch it on again exactly with your dog’s footstep. When you finally make the match, the number shown will be the bpm of your dog’s trotting movement. Of course, this is much easier if you call upon the help of a friend to use the metronome while you just work your dog.

Once you have your dog’s trotting speed, get out your music and time this too. Find the musical beat and match it to the same speed as you already have on your metronome. Don’t change your metronome, the music must match the speed you have already proved to be your dog’s speed.

Again as a rough guide, a military march is about 120b pm while true disco music is set at about 137bpm. The faster the music, the higher the bpm number and the slower the music, the lower the bpm number. Have a look at some CDs specifically for Line Dance. Not all music is Country and Western. Here in the UK Line Dancers love to dance to all types of music but the great thing is all of the CD’s have the bpm of every melody on the back of the CD so you know exactly what you’re getting speed wise.

The beauty of matching your music to your dog’s trotting speed is you do not have to teach your dog anything extra –choose the music by the bpm to match your dog and not for your comfortable ease of movement and your dog will always trot in time with the music.

But if you haven’t got a metronome and you’re desperate to find your dog’s trotting speed, get a watch with a second hand and give it to a mate. Now you need a bunch of other people to count your dog’s front feet as they move. Start your dog heeling. The one with the watch must shout “go” and the rest begin to count immediately. The one with the watch shouts, “stop” at exactly 15 seconds and everyone stops counting at that moment. Now you ask for number of front feet movements counted during those 15 seconds. There will be discrepancies – there always are – but you’ll get a pretty good idea. Take the number most people agree upon, multiply this number by four and you have your dog’s bpm– although not exact. A metronome is much easier to use and far more accurate.

You can buy the small digital ones in music shops – those that sell instruments and sheet music not those that sell CDs etc. They retail from about £20.00 but I think they are worth every penny.

Give a demonstration of your dog trotting with the music and everyone will be aware of the beautiful rhythmic movement, even those who know little about music. They’ll ask how on earth you managed to teach your dog to trot in perfect time with the music, you can give a little sigh, smile a little smile and say – “Ah, it wasn’t easy”.